Hey Mom and Dad,
First of all, I have to say that those pictures of climbing the mountain are awesome! And it sounds like Mom didn't have a heart attack from the stress so it was a successful climb. But that looks really cool I'm glad you had fun doing that. We just have transfers this week and Elder Von Brughan and I are both staying here so we're really excited for that. Our mission is going through some drastic changes lately. We just dropped from 8 zones to 6 since the overall number of missionaries has gone down quite a bit so our districts and everything have gotten all rearranged so that's crazy. And then starting next week p-days are moving to monday. It's pretty intense stuff.
Thank you for doing all those things for Natalie. She told me how great you guys were and she really appreciates all of it so thank you so much for that.
I hope the camping trip went ok. I really miss that alot. I would've totally gone for some of that extremely unhealthy camping food. I bet it tasted good if nothing else. I've decided I'm going to eat healthy for the last year of my mission and try to lose a few more of my extra pounds. I'll have to only buy vegetables to eat in the flat cuz you can't really choose what you get fed when you go to members' houses you know. So I'm going to try and do my best.
I haven't gotten my package yet but we're going up to the office today for p-day to collect our post so I should be getting it today I would imagine. We'll have to see what happens. Gerry is taking us up into Birmingham today for p-day to check things out and get some good chinese food in Birmingham's "Chinatown". We're pretty pumped for that. Oh ya and I did get the letters from the young women tell them all thank you from me. I'll try and write a letter back when I get a bit of spare time.
Thank you again for the pictures Dad. And for the life lesson. That was great. Sad story, but a good lesson learned from it. Thank you for that. I had better get going now because I'm out of time but thank you both for everything. I love you both
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 20, 2010
Hey Mom and Dad. So I didn't even know Natalie was home until about 10 minutes ago. That's crazy. But she emailed and said everything was fine so that's really good to hear. Thank you guys for going down to see her too. She said that really meant alot to her. The work is going really well here. We have a few people we're teaching and everything so that's really exciting. There's one member here whose wife and son aren't members and he wants us to start teaching them here in the next couple of weeks so we're really excited for that. That'll be really fun.
So after seeing the people over here and all of the crazy ones we meet and everything I've made an observation that I would like to share with you. Many of the areas we go into that are run down and mingin are that way simply because of the type of families that are there. That sounds rude but let me explain myself. God's way is a man and a woman who are joined together equally in marriage for the rearing up of children. These places we go into are so full of single parents it's frightening. Or of "partnerships" as they call them, when two people aren't married but Biblically know one another if you catch my drift. But those relationships usually end in some sort of domestic abuse and a single parent anyways. And then when you go out and tract "posh" areas those houses have families living in them. Like husband, wife, and children. There seems to be some kind of correspondence between having a "traditional family" and having temporal prosperity. It's quite interesting. I know sometimes there are circumstances where single parents don't have a choice, they aren't the people I'm talking about. The moral of the story is that if you follow God's way and marry and cleave unto your spouse and none else, you will be blessed in worldly as well as spiritual matters. Pretty cool stuff. But seriously after you get out into the world you get to see a bit of how others live and it makes you really appreciate and understand why God's plan is the way it is. It makes you realize how important it is that a husband and wife work together and are tolerant of one another's weaknesses and faults. But anyways I just wanted to share that with you.
But ya everything is good here. I haven't gotten the package yet but with a bit of luck I'll get it on Thursday. We'll have to see. So that bike is a pretty expensive piece of equipment then. That's pretty sweet.
I sometimes really wish I could call you guys and talk you know. That would make life a ton easier. But I guess missions aren't supposed to be easy huh. But next time you go for a ride in the Nissan do a sweet burnout for me. And make sure to have a Coke with Blake at least once a month for me til I get home then I'll go do it myself.
Anyways I better get going now. Tell Cody to keep on working with them and their bourbon haha. The tea thing is serious here though cuz no one thinks there is anything wrong with having a bit of English morning brew. It's crazy. But anyways have a good week. I love you both
So after seeing the people over here and all of the crazy ones we meet and everything I've made an observation that I would like to share with you. Many of the areas we go into that are run down and mingin are that way simply because of the type of families that are there. That sounds rude but let me explain myself. God's way is a man and a woman who are joined together equally in marriage for the rearing up of children. These places we go into are so full of single parents it's frightening. Or of "partnerships" as they call them, when two people aren't married but Biblically know one another if you catch my drift. But those relationships usually end in some sort of domestic abuse and a single parent anyways. And then when you go out and tract "posh" areas those houses have families living in them. Like husband, wife, and children. There seems to be some kind of correspondence between having a "traditional family" and having temporal prosperity. It's quite interesting. I know sometimes there are circumstances where single parents don't have a choice, they aren't the people I'm talking about. The moral of the story is that if you follow God's way and marry and cleave unto your spouse and none else, you will be blessed in worldly as well as spiritual matters. Pretty cool stuff. But seriously after you get out into the world you get to see a bit of how others live and it makes you really appreciate and understand why God's plan is the way it is. It makes you realize how important it is that a husband and wife work together and are tolerant of one another's weaknesses and faults. But anyways I just wanted to share that with you.
But ya everything is good here. I haven't gotten the package yet but with a bit of luck I'll get it on Thursday. We'll have to see. So that bike is a pretty expensive piece of equipment then. That's pretty sweet.
I sometimes really wish I could call you guys and talk you know. That would make life a ton easier. But I guess missions aren't supposed to be easy huh. But next time you go for a ride in the Nissan do a sweet burnout for me. And make sure to have a Coke with Blake at least once a month for me til I get home then I'll go do it myself.
Anyways I better get going now. Tell Cody to keep on working with them and their bourbon haha. The tea thing is serious here though cuz no one thinks there is anything wrong with having a bit of English morning brew. It's crazy. But anyways have a good week. I love you both
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 13, 2010
It's all going good here. We've been out working and trying to find some new people to teach and we've got a few we're working with so we're happy about that. Gerry gave me the Idaho flag he ordered as well so now it's hanging up in our flat. I thought that was really cool. He's already planning a trip to come over and see Idaho and Salt Lake and whatnot next September after I get home so just letting you know. I told him we could go out to Fort Hall so that he could see Lamanites lol, there aren't too many of those here. He's pretty excited about coming over. So you might have to give him a ride in the plane while he's there Dad. I told him you had one and the only way to appreciate the beauty is to fly over it so he said he might do that. That's really cool about Kally and Mark doing the shirts and pins like that for Blake. I think that's really cool. So are you guys going to do the potato thing again to earn money? It may be a pain but they do make alot for it don't they? Just curious.
So whereabouts does this guy live who is related to Dale? I'm trying to think of places that are 10 miles away from here and there's too many little villages around to guess. Is it like Droitwich or Alcester or something? That's pretty cool that he lives close by anyway. It was flippin hot here last week I tell you what. I was dying out there. The last couple of days it's cooled down quite a bit but man it was crazy. My shirts have like permanent sweat rings on the back so I think I'll have to bleach them hardcore or something. It's crazy.
We had a bit of a disappointing week last week with people dropping appointments like mad but this week is already going better than last so that's good. We're really working with a couple of people here so we're hoping to be able to get a few to move forward a bit. Thank you for the life lesson today Dad I think it was inspired. Sometimes when things aren't going so good in our area or something and we're in a hazard I try to pull out the driver on it and generally it doesn't go so swell. That just reminds me of what you always used to say to me and Blake when we would be working on his car and get ahead of ourselves. "One problem at a time." I couldn't possibly count how many times we heard that one haha. But it really is true if you apply it correctly. Anyways I better get going now. I love you both
Oh ya and I have my provisional license now so I just need to do my theory and driving tests. I just have to find out where they do those and find the time to do it. I'll let you know when that happens. And tell Kim we have trifle here all the time and it is gorgeous. It's one of my favorite puddings I tell you what. Sometimes we buy a bowl of it at Tesco's cuz they have it packaged and ready to go. It's not as good as homemade but it'll do the job. But ya members give us that every now and again at DA's and stuff so it's really cool.
p.s. I have one more request for something sent in the next package. If you can find two pairs of the "Bad Boy Pants" (American Flag pj's) up at Alco me and Von Brughan would both appreciate some of those, if they even still sell them that is. Just get XL's if you can find them. Love you guys
So whereabouts does this guy live who is related to Dale? I'm trying to think of places that are 10 miles away from here and there's too many little villages around to guess. Is it like Droitwich or Alcester or something? That's pretty cool that he lives close by anyway. It was flippin hot here last week I tell you what. I was dying out there. The last couple of days it's cooled down quite a bit but man it was crazy. My shirts have like permanent sweat rings on the back so I think I'll have to bleach them hardcore or something. It's crazy.
We had a bit of a disappointing week last week with people dropping appointments like mad but this week is already going better than last so that's good. We're really working with a couple of people here so we're hoping to be able to get a few to move forward a bit. Thank you for the life lesson today Dad I think it was inspired. Sometimes when things aren't going so good in our area or something and we're in a hazard I try to pull out the driver on it and generally it doesn't go so swell. That just reminds me of what you always used to say to me and Blake when we would be working on his car and get ahead of ourselves. "One problem at a time." I couldn't possibly count how many times we heard that one haha. But it really is true if you apply it correctly. Anyways I better get going now. I love you both
Oh ya and I have my provisional license now so I just need to do my theory and driving tests. I just have to find out where they do those and find the time to do it. I'll let you know when that happens. And tell Kim we have trifle here all the time and it is gorgeous. It's one of my favorite puddings I tell you what. Sometimes we buy a bowl of it at Tesco's cuz they have it packaged and ready to go. It's not as good as homemade but it'll do the job. But ya members give us that every now and again at DA's and stuff so it's really cool.
p.s. I have one more request for something sent in the next package. If you can find two pairs of the "Bad Boy Pants" (American Flag pj's) up at Alco me and Von Brughan would both appreciate some of those, if they even still sell them that is. Just get XL's if you can find them. Love you guys
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6, 2010
Life is good here. Me and Gerry talked the Bishop into singing the Star Spangled Banner in priesthood on Sunday so that was good. The only thing was me and Gerry were the only ones who had ever sung the song so it sounded a bit like a pub brawl at times but it was good anyways. We had us a sweet barbecue at Gerry's on Sunday. He made hot dogs and fried chicken and put up the stars and stripes all over his house and played the national anthem and America the Beautiful and everything while we ate. It made me feel nice. Von Brughan didn't really understand all of it but he enjoyed himself anyway. The Bishops wife was there and she asked me what the 4th of July was about. She honestly didn't know what it was a celebration of. So I shared with her the purpose of it and she asked Gerry why he would support such a thing lol. It was really funny. So then for our spiritual thought for the day I shared 1 Nephi 13:16-19. You should read that it's funny and it's in the Book of Mormon so it's doctrine. And on Saturday we did some service for some members and got an awesome new investigator. She's one of the member's daughter's best friends and her name is Sophie. She's like 16 and we gave her a BoM and she loves it. So we're really chuffed about that.
That's cool about you guys eating at the Ranch Hand. I can't even tell you the amount of times we went out there haha. Good memories anyways. That's what me and Blake were about. Eating diner/truck stop breakfasts and going to watch football games. I was thinking the other day about how many games we went to together and man I can't even number them. Between the Utes, Colorado State (that's when they played against BYU in Provo but Blake would come smack me if I said we went to a BYU game), and Idaho State holy crap that was a ton. That's not even counting the high school ones. We had some good times. I like those ideas you guys have for the headstone. I agree that it just has to fit Blake so whatever we have to do for that I agree with.
Thank you for getting those things for me. You can just send them to the office that'll be fine. Von Brughan is excited for his Vote for Pedro shirt. All we do while we tract is quote Napoleon Dynamite, Hot Rod, and Nacho Libre so he's heard my impressions haha. We were looking around in the closets in the flat and found a pair of moon boots in there so he wears those around in the mornings. He's going to get a picture wearing those and his t-shirt when it gets here so he can send it to his brother lol. Him and his brother are alot like me and Blake. There's just funny stuff he sees that he has to send to his brother just cuz only him and his brother would see the humor in it lol. It's funny to see.
So how is Ginger liking Forks if the kids are hating it? I keep on telling all the Twilight fanatics in the wards that I have an aunt and uncle who have a hotel there and they freak out and everything it's pretty sweet. So Dad now that you have the new plane and whatnot are you going to get Mom to fly up to Forks to visit Ginger and Dan? That would be the easiest way to get there you know. I think that'd be a fun flight to take anyways. Thank you for the life lesson as well that was really a good one. I've had to apply patience a bit in the last little while here because the work has been tough but that's ok.
So I have to get going soon but I need to tell you a story first. On Thursday we had zone conference and we had Elder Kopischke of the Seventy there. They told us beforehand to come with a question in mind that we wanted answered so I did that and prayed that it would be answered there. It was awesome. It was Pres. Ogden who answered it for me but I watched him receive a spiritual prompting to share a scripture with us that answered my question. He was standing there at the podium and all of the sudden he paused and pulled out D&C 64:33 for us. It was awesome. Anyways I better get going. If you apply that principle even to coming to church on Sunday I promise it will work. Just be prepared. I love you both. Have a good week.
That's cool about you guys eating at the Ranch Hand. I can't even tell you the amount of times we went out there haha. Good memories anyways. That's what me and Blake were about. Eating diner/truck stop breakfasts and going to watch football games. I was thinking the other day about how many games we went to together and man I can't even number them. Between the Utes, Colorado State (that's when they played against BYU in Provo but Blake would come smack me if I said we went to a BYU game), and Idaho State holy crap that was a ton. That's not even counting the high school ones. We had some good times. I like those ideas you guys have for the headstone. I agree that it just has to fit Blake so whatever we have to do for that I agree with.
Thank you for getting those things for me. You can just send them to the office that'll be fine. Von Brughan is excited for his Vote for Pedro shirt. All we do while we tract is quote Napoleon Dynamite, Hot Rod, and Nacho Libre so he's heard my impressions haha. We were looking around in the closets in the flat and found a pair of moon boots in there so he wears those around in the mornings. He's going to get a picture wearing those and his t-shirt when it gets here so he can send it to his brother lol. Him and his brother are alot like me and Blake. There's just funny stuff he sees that he has to send to his brother just cuz only him and his brother would see the humor in it lol. It's funny to see.
So how is Ginger liking Forks if the kids are hating it? I keep on telling all the Twilight fanatics in the wards that I have an aunt and uncle who have a hotel there and they freak out and everything it's pretty sweet. So Dad now that you have the new plane and whatnot are you going to get Mom to fly up to Forks to visit Ginger and Dan? That would be the easiest way to get there you know. I think that'd be a fun flight to take anyways. Thank you for the life lesson as well that was really a good one. I've had to apply patience a bit in the last little while here because the work has been tough but that's ok.
So I have to get going soon but I need to tell you a story first. On Thursday we had zone conference and we had Elder Kopischke of the Seventy there. They told us beforehand to come with a question in mind that we wanted answered so I did that and prayed that it would be answered there. It was awesome. It was Pres. Ogden who answered it for me but I watched him receive a spiritual prompting to share a scripture with us that answered my question. He was standing there at the podium and all of the sudden he paused and pulled out D&C 64:33 for us. It was awesome. Anyways I better get going. If you apply that principle even to coming to church on Sunday I promise it will work. Just be prepared. I love you both. Have a good week.
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